Town of Mansfield

Personnel Committee

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Audrey Beck Municipal Building, Conference Room C

Members Present: Deputy Mayor Gregg Haddad, Councilor Chris Paulhus, Councilor Helen Koehn, Mayor Elizabeth Paterson

Staff Present: Maria Capriola, Assistant to Town Manager and Cherie Trahan, Controller/Treasurer

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting came to order at 7:05 p.m.

MINUTES

The minutes of September 20, 2007 were passed (Koehn, Paulhus). Abstention (Haddad).

III.         GRANTS ACCOUNTANT POSITION

Expanding the hours of the part-time accountant position in the Finance Department to full-time was discussed.  Ms. Koehn inquired about the grant revenues that would help fund the expanded hours.  Ms. Trahan explained the revenues by funding source. 

Ms. Koehn asked if the accountant position is non-union.  Ms. Capriola and Ms. Trahan stated that the Department currently has one full-time and one part-time accountant position, both of which are non-union. 

Ms. Trahan distributed a handout that illustrated: the entities Finance provides support to (including size of budgets) and a historic position table (years 2000 to the present).  Ms. Trahan explained that due to financial constraints, the Department lost one position in 2004; expanding the part-time accountant hours to full-time would return the Department to 2003 staffing levels.  Council members expressed an interest in staff providing the handout to Council at the November 13, 2007 Council meeting.

Staff discussed the various fiduciary responsibilities of the Department and noted that it is very lean in regards to professional staff.  Ms. Capriola indicated that the Finance Department responsibilities continue to grow, yet staffing has not grown with the increased duties.  Ms. Trahan discussed some of the increased duties related to grants, Discovery Depot, Eastern Highlands Health District and the Downtown Partnership.  Mayor Paterson stated that even more grant work would be forthcoming with the anticipated school renovations/grants.  Ms. Trahan also discussed the duties of the position.

The Personnel Committee unanimously adopted a motion endorsing the expansion of the part-time accountant position to full-time.

IV.        PROCESS FOR TOWN MANAGER PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Mr. Haddad noted that all Council members have submitted their evaluations for the Town Manager.  Ms. Koehn stated that she is preparing the documents and will email a draft to the Personnel Committee for feedback.  The Committee agreed to meet at the November 13, 2007 meeting to discuss the performance evaluation during an executive session.